Tag: jelauddinrumi

Every master has a select vessel where secrets and knowledge may be poured into. The Master seeks an empty vessel, a heart ready to receive. Attar the famed Persian poet and mystic too sought an empty vessel and in his presence arrived the young Jelaluddin Rumi. The latter, as legend states had fled with his family, the Mongol invasion of his homeland and en route to Anatolia, in the city of Neshapour, young Jelaluddin had to come into the physical presence of Master Attar who would gaze at him and grace him for such works the world had yet to see. He saw Jelaluddin’s father walking ahead of his son and said, “Here comes a sea followed by an ocean.”

Naturally, Attar a master, recognised the secret of Rumi and gave him his Asrarnama, the book of secrets, which prepared him to study deeper the subtle mysteries of the heart. Later in his adult years, Mevlana Rumi was to meet his spiritual Master and guide who would alchemically transmute the scholar into an ecstatic lover of Divine, something the world had yet to expreience. Again, Shamsuddin too was in search of a open vessel, a master whom he would transfer his entire being and secrets to. Rumi was the select and elect candidate for Shams e Tabrez.

Among the students of Rumi, was Husamuddin. As the story goes, Husamuddin implored Mevlana Rumi, “If you were to write a book like the Ilahiname of Sanai or the Mantiq ‘ut-Tayr (Conference of the Birds) of Attar it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany it.” Thereupon Mevlana Rumi embraced the suggestion and composed the song of the reed which would become the opening chapter of his Mathnavi, a six volume epic work of the famed Eastern poet who stands today as the most read poet in the West.